THE Bulgarian tradition of masked dancers known as Kukeri dates back centuries to pagan times and each year hundreds of groups of masked men visit the homes of villages throughout the country to perform ritual dances for the occupants' health and well-being.

The masks are judged by festival juries on their presentation and arrangement and, though most regions rely on the furs and feathers of domestic animals and birds, the Durrel Wild Fauna Protection and Support Centre noted the disturbing phenomenon of villagers from the Pernik, Radomir, and Breznik regions increasingly using rare and protected bird and animal species to decorate their masks.

Assisted by Alexandrina Yaprovkova from the Regional Environmental Inspectorate for Pernik, and Tsvetana Manova, the local ethnographic specialist at Pernik museum, members of the Durrell Centre made a tour of the region's villages, visiting the chief mask makers and speaking to local people.

"We discovered that the locals had no idea the birds and animals they were using for their masks were protected," said Georgy Stoyanov, chairman of the Durrell Centre. "Nobody had made them aware of which species were protected by law."

They immediately sent a letter to the Foundation of European Carnival Cities Headquarters, which responded with a letter of support stating their objection to the use of protected species in the manufacture of such masks. The Dutch Embassy in Sofia then provided funding for the Durrell Centre's project to stop the use of endangered species and promote the use of domestic furs and feathers. "Some domestic breeds such as turkeys have very colourful feathers," said Stoyan Yotov, who has been working with the project. "It should be about the presentation and arrangement of the masks rather than participants trying to show off with the rare birds they have captured."

One of the centre's initiatives is to offer a prize, provided by funding from the Ford Motor Company Foundation, for the best mask made without protected species. The award will be given next February at Pernik's international Kukeri festival, which will be a crucial event for the Durrell Centre as it will determine the success of their work so far.

The agreement of the festival organising committee and jury has already been obtained and posters explaining that the use of protected species to make masks is illegal, and indicating the support of the festival committee have been put up in all the regions concerned.

"It's vital that we maintain our campaign in the coming months," said Stoyanov, "because the mask makers will hunt for the animals and birds for next year's masks during the summer, autumn, and winter." He hopes that alongside the posters and brochures already distributed, there will be local radio broadcasts and newspaper adverts to support their cause. "It's important for us to get across exactly what we are against, which is the use of protected species in mask making," Stoyanov continued, "we have nothing against the festival itself as it's a very important and fascinating cultural event."

His explanation for Southwestern Bulgarian Kukeri being the only dancers to use such species was the lack of enforcement of hunting laws and easy access to guns in recent years. "Tsvetana Manova showed us that a decade ago the use of protected species was much less in these regions," he said. "Now people are less afraid to just go out and shoot whatever they see - they are willing to obey laws, but only if those laws are enforced."

Now that the festival organisers have expressed their opposition, Stoyanov and his colleagues are hopeful that those who want to participate in the festival next year will get the message and turn up without masks decorated with endangered species such as the Barn Owl (see picture). "It won't happen immediately," Stoyanov observed, "but people have responded positively and we believe that this will eventually influence the whole tradition in the region."